1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image retrieving apparatus for retrieving an image stored in a storage medium.
2. Related Background Art
In retrieving an image stored in a storage medium of a conventional electronic filing system, a file name or key word assigned when storing the image, is designated to display it on a display screen. A user visually confirms whether the retrieved and displayed image is a desired one. If it is a desired one, the image is printed out on a recording sheet, and if not another image is retrieved.
Such a conventional retrieving method is associated with very complicated works. If a user forgets the file name or key word of an image because it is impossible to reduce the number of image files to be checked, a very large number of image files are required to be read by trial and error.
In one method of eliminating such inconveniences, as disclosed in U.S. patent Ser. No. 038,239, images stored in a storage medium are reduced in size and stored as index images in the storage medium. A plurality of such index images are read at a time and displayed. A user designates an index image to read a desired image file.
With this method, however, if there are too many index images, efficient retrieval is not possible. If the number of index images to be displayed is to be reduced, a key word or the like is required to be entered for the retrieval of index images. Therefore, if a user forgets a key word, it is impossible to reduce the number of index images to be checked.
In another method of dealing with such inconveniences, as disclosed in U.S. patent Ser. Nos. 477,470, 478,250, 601,445 and the like, each image file is assigned an optional image index instead of a conventional character index (key word). In retrieving an image file, an image index is designated to obtain a desired image file.
With this method, an image index is required to be assigned to each image file in advance, in order to allow the retrieval using image indices. If such an image index is inadvertently not assigned to some image files, efficient retrieval is impossible.